The Idaho Supreme Court on Friday put a stay on the state’s controversial new abortion law, set to go into effect later this month, pending a lawsuit filed last week by Planned Parenthood.

The Idaho Supreme Court temporarily blocked implementation of an abortion law modeled on Texas’s bill banning abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

The court granted the stay in response to a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood. The organization operates three of the four abortion providers based in the state, according to the Idaho Statesman.

The Idaho Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked the state’s new six-week abortion ban, which mimics a controversial Texas law.

Abortion providers had said in a lawsuit filed last week that the Idaho law violates several provisions of the state constitution and asked the state Supreme Court to intervene before April 22, when the law had been set to take effect.

The court on Friday granted a motion to reconsider, and said that the “implementation of Senate Bill 1309 is stayed pending further action by this Court.”

Abortions in Texas fell by 60% in the first month under the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S. in decades, according to new figures that for the first time reveal a full accounting of the immediate impact.

The nearly 2,200 abortions reported by Texas providers in September came after a new law took effect that bans the procedure once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and without exceptions in cases of rape or incest. The figures were released this month by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

This week, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission released abortion data for September 2021, the first full month in which the Texas Heartbeat Act was in effect. The data illustrate that the new law, which protects preborn children after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, has significantly reduced the incidence of abortion in the Lone Star State.

“The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday left in place a ban on most abortions in Texas but allowed a legal challenge [from abortion providers] to proceed… The Texas law [S.B. 8] enables private citizens to sue anyone who performs or assists a woman in getting an abortion after embryo cardiac activity is detected. Individual citizens can be awarded a minimum of $10,000 for successful lawsuits.” (Reuters)

Pro-choice advocates warned a domino effect would happen in the wake of Texas’ extreme abortion restriction – and it’s officially underway. Alabama became the fourth state to file a Texas-style abortion restriction on Tuesday evening, mirroring the Lone Star State’s ban right down to the deputizing of private citizens.

The Supreme Court on Friday said some lawsuits against Texas' anti-abortion law — the strictest in the country — can proceed.

The big picture: The court's decision is not a ruling on the merits of Texas' law — and leaves the law in place — but it paves the way for the courts to decide whether that law is constitutional.

Driving the news: The decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, says abortion clinics in the state can challenge the Texas law's constitutionality in court. But it allows only a small slice of those lawsuits to proceed.

The Supreme Court Friday morning ruled that a lawsuit by abortion providers against Texas over its abortion law may proceed, despite arguments by Texas that the way the law was written made it so that parties could not sue against the law until it was enforced. 

"The Court concludes that the petitioners may pursue a pre-enforcement challenge against certain of the named defendants but not others," the court, led by Justice Neil Gorsuch, said. 

The Supreme Court decision makes it difficult for abortion providers in Texas to prevent future civil lawsuits against them for performing abortions. Under the state law, any private citizen across the country can sue individuals thought to have assisted in violating the state’s so-called heartbeat ban.